Game Master Tips & Tricks

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A Brief Word From Johnn

D&D Marathon Was Awesome

I'm getting old because I call our 12 hour game sessions
marathons. I'm sure convention goers and youngins scoff at
such a small number, lol. For my group, though, it's a
notable day and fun achievement.

We gamed part way through the D&D 4E adventure Pyramid of
Shadows last week during our marathon. The module is a lot
of fun, however we've found our tastes have wandered away
from long dungeon crawls. Next campaign, for example, the
unanimous vote was to do an urban fantasy campaign.

One disappointment I had was we ended mid-module, so there
was no climactic end to our epic day. Blame the game master
for that. However, lesson learned, and I'll be planning
things differently next time so that the story arc reaches a
conclusion or a great cliffhanger.

DMG II is Out

The Dungeon Master Guide II for D&D 4E hit shelves recently.
It was a long wait for me, as - if you'll allow me to toot
my own horn for a sec - I contributed 16 pages to it. I just
received my author's copy and a life-long dream has finally
come true - my name in the credits of a D&D hardback. Very
exciting! Thanks to Wizards of the Coast for the chance to
contribute.

Reader Tips Requests

How to introduce your family to RPG?

Roleplaying Tips reader A.E. has this request:

Hello,

There are no gaming groups where I live, so I am considering
introducing my family to roleplaying. However, I'm not sure
how to get the idea across to them as none of them have
encountered RPGs before. Also, both my younger siblings are
already showing powergamer tendencies, my brother is likely
to become a Rules Lawyer once he learns the game rules, and
my parents, if I bring them into it, will just act silly.
How can I introduce my family to RPGs and make it work?

Player Achievements Ideas

What are some ideas for notable player achievements? These
are things good or bad you could track and recognize players
for, perhaps with a homemade trophy or pocket points. The
intent is to callout great players or do some friendly
ribbing.

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Adventures titles.

12 Disasters in Fantasy Campaigns

Natural disasters are some of the most terrifying and life-
altering events on earth.

Infernos, floods, and shaking earth all come without warning
and can change everything. Why exclude these forces from
your fantasy RPG campaign?

In a fantasy world, natural disasters will rarely be
naturally caused. Most often, those who suffer from the
disaster will look to the heavens (or to the Other Place)
wondering why.

Were their gods displeased by their actions? More
sacrifices and greater piety! Are their gods being
capricious and uncaring? Find new gods or lose faith.

If evil powers are at work, can they be appeased? Can they
be stopped?

Was the disaster prophesied and if so, by whom? Does it
presage more terrible events to come? Is a meddling cabal of
wizards upsetting the natural order or are the ley lines
drifting?

Natural disasters can bring gritty, dark flavor to your
campaign. You might stay in a purer ecological fantasy
world, but I think you'd be missing out.

Let's look at some natural disasters and how they might
affect a fantasy campaign.

1. Plagues

With the wide range of methods disease can use to ravage
creatures and people, plagues can take many forms: fast-
moving viruses, flesh-eating bacteria, slow-developing
strains that focus on the young or only men or only one
race.

The effects of the disease can be loaded with symbolic
meaning, branding the sick physically, robbing them of the
ability to create children, or deranging them mentally.

Wide-spread death would bring economic ruin, refugees, and
other lamentations.

Since the concept of viruses and bacteria don't fit your
typical fantasy realm, all manner of scapegoats would be
found: bad sacrifices, bad behaviors, evil people, or
unclean races.

The disease could become an epidemic or even a pandemic.

2. Global Warming or Cooling

It might occur over generations. "The bards tell of times
when rain will fall like soft feathers and lie on the ground
like a cool blanket"

alternatively, it could be magically fast. "The sun has not
been seen for a year and the sea slips away from us. We have
wronged the gods!"

Global warming can have wide-reaching effects such as
drought, flooding, species migration or extinction, and
conversion of arable land to dust.

Cooling would draw the seas into ice and other opposites
of warming. Weeks-long blizzards could freeze people and
livestock, strand travelers, or shut down vital routes of
trade for months at a time.

If caused by the gods or evil magic, the effects might
only apply to one people or one region, perhaps that of a
hated rival. The effect might be considered a weapon in war
with a broader reach and effect than any of its individual
symptoms.

3. Drought

Water is life. When the rain does not fall and the heat
remains unabated, crops will fail, the livestock will waste
and die, and famine will raise its claw over the hand,
striking at the pained bellies of the children and the weak.

Plants will suffer and wither, leaving dry, cracked earth.
Without divine or arcane relief, drought can slowly kill off
a region of the world.

Perhaps the plane of fire is breaking down the barrier to
the mortal realm? A bleeding sun or the eruption of
volcanoes might accentuate the effect.

4. Flooding

Too much water is not much better than too little. As the
rains continue to fall and the rivers swell, riverside
communities will be abandoned, crops ruined under the flood
waters, valuables might be washed away or buried under new
fields of mud and silt.

Villages might be swept away with no evidence left after the
floodwaters recede. The floods also bring disease for
livestock and people. Refugees will take the illness with
them as they pull up their roots and try to migrate
elsewhere.

The water will be poor to drink after the rains end. Noted
figures might have been swept away and thought drowned.
Perhaps the floods occurred upland, swelling up behind a
natural barrier, only to break through and deluge a major
city or an army in the field at the crucial moment in a war.

5. Tornadoes

More of a surgical strike in the world of disasters,
tornadoes can rip narrow paths across miles of land.
Clusters might destroy a small town, but don't last in a
city.

The effect would work best at a personal level; the complete
destruction of a single homestead while the nearest neighbor
is left untouched is bound to bring suspicion.

Perhaps you can take a cue from the Wizard of Oz and have
tornadoes be violent portals to other places.

6. Hurricanes, Cyclones and Typhoons

These are storms at sea that strike the coastline, bringing
with them a storm surge of water and massive flooding.

High winds could tear things apart or throw people around.
Torrential rains could cause flash flooding, trapping or
drowning individuals or small groups.

Their effects can last many hours, making them a perfect
setting for that adventure you wanted to run with some extra
challenge to it. A race around a city becomes much more
interesting fighting hurricane force winds and flooding.

Naturally, surviving such storms while at sea can be a
tremendous challenge, sinking whole war fleets or opening a
portal to an undersea kingdom.

7. Earthquakes

By definition, these can shake up an adventure or campaign.
If the heroes are in a dungeon, the shape of the dungeon
could change radically, becoming unstable and making them
race to get out alive.

Prominent buildings or even Wonders of the World might
collapse due to the quake. Is it a god stomping upon the
face of the earth? Is it the anger of the spirits inside
the deep underground?

An earthquake at sea can cause a tsunami, a towering wave of
water that smashes into the coast, destroying everything up
to a mile from the shore.

Uncontrolled flames could erupt into fires in cities or
forests. An earthquake might even unleash a volcano from the
depths.

8. Volcanoes

These monsters have many ways of hurting you: the initial
blast of the eruption with fires searing ash and rock out
over a large area, the flow of lava - either crumbly, gluey,
or super hot and fast like a pyroclastic flow - down from
the mouth, and clouds of ash for days afterward choking
people and animals, piling up and abrading surfaces.

All sorts of fire-related causes could be at play: the birth
of a nest of red dragons, salamanders invading from the
plane of fire, the heart of deep earth unleashed by unwise
or careless mages, or dwarves delving too deep.

9. Forest Fires

The same sources of volcanic wrath can be blamed for forest
fires. In addition, the lightning strike of storm giants or
breath of dragons might light the blaze.

The fire destroys great swaths of forest endangering or
destroying forest-based civilizations such as elves. Homes,
villages, crops, trapped people and livestock can all be
burnt to ash.

Complain to a druid and they might explain it is all part of
the natural cycle, allowing the forest to renew itself.

10. Landslide, Mudslides and Avalanches

Up on the slopes, the vertical movement of land and snow can
change the face of everything, swallowing up people, things,
and places in a few moments. But it can also reveal
entrances to long-lost tombs high on the mountain side.

Lower down, slides tend to be of dirt, either dry or water-
logged, which can have similar terrain-shaping effects. If
earth elementals are involved, the slide could actually be
the beginning of a war.

11. Thunderstorms and Hail Storms

At the right time, even thunderstorms can feel like a
natural disaster. Imagine scaling that mountain face to the
remote cave in high winds and lightning, footing made
treacherous by horizontal rain.

Heavy storms can create mudslides or may be accompanied by
hail or other bizarre atmospheric effects.

And nothing says mood like a thunderstorm, gently herding
our protagonists to the house on the hill as the only
shelter from the violent storm.

12. Impact Events

This happens when something falls from the sky - hard. An
impact could knock down millions of trees, create
earthquakes and tsunamis, or even touch off a firestorm if
it explodes just above the ground.

Some explode in the atmosphere with a huge fireball. Surely
this is a message from the gods!

13. Consequences of Disaster

Even if there aren't malevolent forces at work, a disaster
can still carry a story purpose. Heroes can emerge in times
of calamity; empires can be weakened as the rules get
changed overnight.

If used carefully, a big disaster could help you do a reboot
on your campaign world. In mine, a massive earthquake caused
an ancient lost city to rise again. Naturally, it was the
PCs who triggered the earthquake.

Disasters have many consequences. People will come to
different conclusions about the cause of the disaster. This
is why a disaster might cause the resurrection of a death
cult at the same time the traditional good religion has
resurgence.

In some places, a minority might be made scapegoats and
persecuted. Multitudes of refugees could be sent into
dangerous lands or overrun nearby cities. Starvation and
disease might become rampant, taxing the abilities of
clerics to respond.

The shape of the world might be changed not just physically
but also politically. Economic fortunes can be made or lost
because of a disaster: a merchant fleet lost at sea, new
veins of gold exposed, spiking prices for basic goods now in
short supply.

Nations, merchant houses, and powerful families could be
raised or put down in the aftermath. Populated areas might
be stripped of their people, empty lands might suddenly be
filled by refugees or opportunists. Ancient and long lost
places, artifacts, and ruins might be unearthed through the
power of disaster. New monsters might be unleashed.

As terrible as they are in our world, disasters might be
even worse in a fantasy realm - the Rule of Biblical
Proportions. You don't just have flooding along the main
river system; you flood the world for 40 days. Diseases
could spread across many species, people, and plants.

If people are prepared for the event it might not result in
a disaster. An area prone to earthquakes might have magical
preventions or ways to keep people and buildings safe,
minimizing the effect of the natural hazard on the people.

* * *

Jim Davenport owns Dragonlaird Gaming and is a freelance
writer and game designer.
http://www.dragonlairdgaming.com/

Zombie Murder Mystery

Zombie Murder Mystery is a party game of who-done-it with a
zombie infestation twist. Learn this roleplaying game in
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One player is the evil necromancer. Will you find him before
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down to the necromancer's ultimate victory. Or maybe it is
your ultimate victory?

Game Master Tips & Tricks

1. Getting To Know Your Players

One of the biggest things I have learned is that before
anything is created you should get to know your players a
bit.

Sit down with anyone you have not yet played with and go
over the types of games they like, the depth of the worlds
they enjoy playing in and their preferences for what can
occur in the game you are creating.

For players you know already you should be able to guess
most of it accurately, but it can never hurt to ask them
anyway just to be sure.

I have found this to be of great value to my campaigns as it
prevents me from wasting many hours on a part of the game my
players could care less about.

I love creating the deities and all the religions,
interactions and belief systems out there, but my last group
of gamers could have cared less about religion. They loved
the idea of the different nations and their politics,
something I had not gone into depth with that required a lot
of on the fly thinking.

Why waste time when you can spend it on creating the world
and dungeons your players crave, making it a win for
everyone?

2. Atlas Obscura

From: Loz Newman

I found a site with photos of interesting places, like
hanging palaces and double-decker bridges grown from roots.
There's text explaining each place's history, which could be
used to springboard scenario ideas.

I'm still exploring it, but so far, so good. If you can't
get at least one "Oooh! That gives me an idea!" thought
from it I'll be very surprised.

5. Treacherous PCs

It sounds like this was poorly implemented and the players
felt there was favoritism or as if the carpet were yanked
out from under their feet.

I disagree that betrayal within the party is a universally a
bad idea. Yes, it will break the unwritten rule that all the
players are automatically on the same side. And this kind of
play will definitely not work for most groups. Heck,
probably most would agree that it is just wrong (like my
wife).

However, if done with proper foreshadowing and clues so that
the other players have a chance to figure it out (just like
you would with an NPC villain in the party) it can work.

While the players might be surprised by the betrayal, they
should be able to look back and see how events led up to
this point.

The betraying player needs to be willing and wanting to play
a villain who is likely to die at the party's hands.

In short, this is a another tool in the toolbox of story
telling, one that must be used with care and lots of
forethought.

I think the real message is that this plot device will fail
to deliver fun for all more often than not.

6. Flavor Text and Game Mechanics

From: Will Hopkins

Connecting flavor text with game mechanics is one of the
most rewarding and challenging jobs for a game master. As a
GM, I've struggled with figuring out how to make my cool
idea into a workable game concept.

Many people don't think in terms of game rules when they
come up with an idea. For example, you might be walking
down the street and have a great inspiration for an
assassin who's also a librarian from the Eternal Library.
But how to make it fit?

Here are a list of questions I use to figure out how to
connect the flavor text of a character, item, or locale
with the appropriate game mechanics.

What system am I using?

For me, this is the most important question to begin with.
Each game system is (mostly) unique and has different ways
for dealing with new creations. My personal favorites are
Dungeons and Dragons and Savage Worlds. Connecting flavor
text to game mechanics is different in each.

How powerful do I want this item/idea/character to be?

When creating anything new for a game consider how powerful
your concept is. In D&D 4E, for example, you should think
about what tier your concept will be in since it will help
balance the concept within the game mechanics.

Is there something in the game that mostly fits my
purposes?

Chances are there's something in your game system or
campaign setting that can be adapted to fit your purposes. A
rogue can be turned into an assassin, for example. A Deck of
Many Things could be made to have only a few magical cards
with specific purposes. A Professional Edge can be modified
to turn a Woodsman into a Commando, and so on. Oftentimes
all you need to do is tweak what you already have.

What is my core concept in one sentence?

If you can define what your idea does in one sentence, use
that sentence to tie it into game mechanics. The core of
your idea is usually all you need to get started. It can
define the purpose for the character/class/item, explain
its most powerful ability, or just summarize it in a
convenient package.

In this case, writers went backwards from the game mechanics
to the flavor text, which is often easier.

When going from mechanics to flavor text, consider the
established history of the setting in which you are
working. As a game master, you can adapt any part of an
established setting or create something from whole cloth.

Once again, try the core concept in one sentence tactic. It
will give you a basic summary, simplify integration into the
campaign, and give you something to work with.

Also consider related concepts, regardless of whether you
are working from mechanics or flavor. Picking out three or
four related characters, items, or classes makes integration
of new material seamless and gives you easy hooks when it
comes time to play the game.

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